22 Works, June 20th. is Konstantin Makovsky's day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #167

Konstantin Makovsky  (1839–1915)

Kissing custom, c. 1895

Oil on canvas

State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg

At the time of Ivan the Terrible, women used to be kept indoors, sheltered from interactions with strangers. The only exceptions allowed were with friends and highly regarded guests during a kissing ceremony. This rite usually meant that the host’s spouse would sip wine from a goblet, bow, and then pass it to the guest. On special occasions the latter was invited to kiss the wife on the lips, which was considered to be a great honor. 

In the painting, Morozov, the old man to the right with a long, white beard, is waiting to see the reaction of Elena when Romanchov kisses her. Romanchov is the man wearing a green tunic and leaning forward, while Elena is the pale, tall woman holding a large, golden goblet. As Morozov is frowning and tensely gripping the arm of his chair, his right hand rests dangerously close to a dagger. Next to him, a jester whispers devilishly into his ear, emboldening the boyar’s worst suspicions. More on this painting

Konstantin Yegorovich Makovsky (June 20, 1839 —September 17, 1915) was an influential Russian painter, affiliated with the "Peredvizhniki",  a realist artists who formed an artists' cooperative in protest of academic restrictions. Many of his historical paintings, such as Beneath the Crown (1889) also known as The Russian Bride's Attire (See below) and Before the Wedding, showed an idealized view of Russian life of prior centuries. He is often considered a representative of Academic art.

Konstantin Makovsky  (1839–1915)

The Russian Bride's Attire, c. 1890

Oil on canvas

Serpukhov historical-art museum 

Konstantin Makovsky  (1839–1915)

Blind Man’s Bluff

Oil on canvas

182.9 x 198.1 cm. (72 x 78 in.)

Private collection

Konstantin Makovsky was born in Moscow. His father was the Russian art figure and amateur painter, Egor Ivanovich Makovsky. His mother was a composer, and she hoped her son would one day follow in her footsteps. His younger brothers Vladimir and Nikolay and his sister Alexandra also went on to become painters.

Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky

PILGRIMS' REFECTORY AT THE SERGEEV TRINITY MONASTERY

Oil on canvas

19 by 27in.

Private collection

The Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius is the most important Russian monastery and the spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The monastery was founded in 1337 by one of the most venerated Russian saints, Sergius of Radonezh, who built a wooden church in honour of the Holy Trinity on Makovets Hill. Early development of the monastic community is well documented in contemporary lives of Sergius and his disciples. More on The Trinity Lavra

In 1851 Makovsky entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture where he became the top student, easily getting all the available awards. His teachers were Karl Bryullov and Vasily Tropinin. Makovsky's inclinations to Romanticism and decorative effects can be explained by the influence of Bryullov.

Konstantin Makovsky  (1839–1915)

Death of Petronius, c. 1904

Sketch for the painting of the same name of the same year

Oil on canvas

54 x 74 cm

State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Gaius Petronius Arbiter was a Roman courtier during the reign of Nero. He is generally believed to be the author of the Satyricon, a satirical novel believed to have been written during the Neronian era (54–68 AD).

Petronius' high position soon made him the object of envy for those around him. Having attracted the jealousy of Tigellinus, the commander of the emperor's guard, he was accused of treason. He was arrested at Cumae in 65 AD but did not wait for a sentence. Instead, he chose to take his own life. More on Petronius

Although art was his passion, he also considered what his mother had wanted him to do. He set off to look for composers he could refer to, and first went to France. Before, he had always been a classical music lover, and listened to many pieces. He often wished he could change the tune, or style of some of them to make them more enjoyable. Later in his life it came true.

Konstantin Makovsky  (1839–1915)

Farmers at the harvest, c. 1923

Oil on board

10 x 14.3 cm

Private collection

In 1858 Makovsky entered the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. From 1860 he participated in the Academy's exhibitions with paintings such as Curing of the Blind (1860) and Agents of the False Dmitry kill the son of Boris Godunov (1862) (See below). In 1863 Makovsky and thirteen other students held a protest against the Academy's setting of topics from Scandinavian mythology in the competition for the Large Gold Medal of Academia; all left the academy without a formal diploma.

Konstantin Makovsky

The Murder of False Dmitry

Oil on canvas

I have no further description, at this time

For the first day, a naked corpse, according to the popular folk custom of the "trade execution", lay in the mud in the middle of the market.

On the second day, the body was lifted onto a wooden counter, the belly was ripped open, and a carnival mask, according to courtly Polish custom, was placed on his chest, which False Dmitry himself was preparing for a palace holiday (it was announced that he had an idol on his chest, a he worshiped during his lifetime), a pipe sounded in his mouth. The Murder of False Dmitry

Konstantin Makovsky  (1839–1915)

False Dmitry's agents murdering Feodor Godunov and his mother, c. 1862

Oil on canvas

Tretyakov Gallery

False Dmitry I reigned as the Tsar of Russia from 10 June 1605 until his death on 17 May 1606 under the name of Dmitriy Ivanovich Dunning, Dmitry was "the only Tsar ever raised to the throne by means of a military campaign and popular uprisings".

He was the first, and most successful, of three "pretenders" who claimed during the Time of Troubles to be the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, who had supposedly escaped the 1591 assassination attempt when he was 8 years old. False Dmitry I claimed that his mother Maria Nagaya anticipated the assassination attempt under the orders of Boris Godunov, the de facto regent, and helped him escape to a monastery. The assassins killed somebody else instead, and he fled to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

With the support of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, False Dmitry I invaded the Russian Empire in 1605, but the war soon ended due to the sudden death of Boris Godunov. When False Dmitry I entered Moscow he was crowned tsar. Maria Nagaya accepted him as her son and "confirmed" his story. False Dmitry I's reign was marked by his openness to Catholicism and allowing foreigners into Russian borders. This made him unpopular with the boyars, the ruling nobility in medieval Russia, who staged a successful coup eleven months after False Dmitry I took the throne, killing False Dmitry I in the process. His wife for 10 days, Tsarina Marina, would "accept" False Dmitry II as her fallen husband. More on False Dmitry I

Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky

The ambassadors of the zemsky sobor trying to convince the nun Marfa that her son Mikhail Fyodorovich Romanov should accept the crown. 

Oil on relined canvas

188 x 142 cm

Private collection

The ambassadors of the zemsky sobor trying to convince the nun Marfa that her son Mikhail Fyodorovich Romanov should accept the crown. The scene took place in the Ipatiev monastery on the 24 of March 1613

Konstantin Makovsky  (1839–1915)

Ivan Susanin, c. 1914

Oil on canvas

301 x 464 cm

Private collection

Ivan Susanin (died 1613) was a Russian national hero and martyr of the early-17th-century Time of Troubles. According to popular legend, Susanin guided Polish troops seeking to kill Tsar Mikhail on a false path deep into the Russian forest, and they were never heard from again. More on Ivan Susanin

Konstantin Makovsky  (1839–1915)

The Bulgarian Martyresses, c. 1877

Oil on canvas

Height: 207 cm (81.4 in); Width: 141 cm (55.5 in)

Belarusian National Arts Museum

In November 1875, activists of the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee met in the Romanian town of Giurgiu and decided that the political situation was suitable for a general uprising.

At Oborishte, on 20 April 1876 the local rebel committee attacked and surrounded the headquarters of the Ottoman police in Koprivshtitsa. At least two Ottoman police officials were killed and were forced to release arrested Bulgarian rebel suspects. 

The Ottoman response was immediate and severe. They mobilized detachments of regular troops and also irregular bashi-bazouks. These forces attacked the first insurgent towns as early as 25 April. The Turkish forces massacred civilian populations. More on the  Bulgarian atrocities

"The Bulgarian Martyresses", 1877 painting by the Russian painter Konstantin Makovsky, depicting the rape of Bulgarian women by Africanised Ottoman bashi-bazouks during the suppression of the April Uprising a year earlier, served to mobilise public support for the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) waged with the proclaimed aim of liberating the Bulgarians. More on this painting

From 1870 he was a founding member of the Society for Traveling Art Exhibitions and continued to work on paintings devoted to everyday life. He exhibited his works at both the Academia exhibitions and the Traveling Art Exhibitions of the Wanderers.

Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky

Happy Arcadia

Oil on canvas

220 x 364cm

Private collection

Happy Arcadia is a musical entertainment that premiered on 28 October 1872. The piece is a satire on the genre of pastoral plays in which the characters, who each wish that they could be someone else, have their wish granted, with unhappy results. More on Happy Arcadia

A significant change in his style occurred after traveling to Egypt and Serbia in the mid-1870s. His interests changed from social and psychological problems to the artistic problems of colors and shape.

Nikolai Egorovich Makovsky

Street Scene in Cairo

Watercolour on paper

Private collection

Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky

STREET IN CAIRO

Watercolour on paper

50 by 33cm

Private collection

School in Cairo is one of the most famous of Makovsky’s canvasses depicting scenes of study in a madrassah, inspired by impressions from his travels in North Africa. 

The painting offered here has a complex compositional structure. The figures are depicted on two levels: in the upper and the lower chamber of the accommodation, in the foreground and in deeper perspective as rooms open to view; the vivid ‘carpet-like’ colours enhance the oriental atmosphere; the evocative poses and facial expressions of the Arab boys are rendered accurately and convincingly. All this testifies not only to Konstantin Makovsky’s mastery as an artist, but also to his great familiarity with the everyday life of an oriental country whose customs and traditions he respected. More on this painting

Konstantin Makovsky  (1839–1915)

Muhammed's carpet moving from Mecca to Cairo, c. 1875

Oil on canvas

Height: 138 cm (54.3 in); Width: 222 cm (87.4 in)

State Russian Museum

In the 1870s Makovsky was often in North Africa visiting Egypt where he found a new world opened up to him, unfamiliar and entrancing. His impressions from these trips led him to create a whole series of pictures on ethnographic themes on which he worked at his studio in Paris. The Orientalist trend was extremely popular in French art at that time, adding exoticism and spice to academic painting. He became one of many artists in Russia to go down the route of exploring Orientalism in the last third of the 19th century. His most significant work in this vein is The Handing Over of the Sacred Carpet in Cairo, painted for the heir to the throne of Russia, Alexander Alexandrovich (State Russian Museum). More on this painting

Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky

School in Cairo

Oil on canvas

77 x 112 cm

Private collection

Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky

The festival 'Dusa'

Oil on canvas

17 5/16 x 35 13/16in

Private collection

A dosa is a thin pancake or crepe, originating from South India, made from a fermented batter predominantly consisting of lentils and rice. 

The Dosa Festival which is held annually in the months of January/February, is very popular and features at least a 100 different varieties of Dosas.

In the 1880s he became a fashionable author of portraits and historical paintings. At the World's Fair of 1889 in Paris he received the Large Gold Medal for his paintings Death of Ivan the Terrible, The Judgement of Paris, and Demon and Tamara. 

Konstantin Makovsky  (1839–1915)

The Judgment of Paris, c. 1889

Oil on canvas

Height: 244 cm (96 in); Width: 396 cm (12.9 ft)

I have no further description, at this time

The judgment of Paris was a contest between the three most beautiful goddesses of Olympos--Aphrodite, Hera and Athena--for the prize of a golden apple addressed "To the Fairest."

 

The story began with the wedding of Peleus and Thetis which all the gods had been invited to attend except for Eris, goddess of discord. When Eris appeared at the festivities she was turned away and in her anger cast the golden apple amongst the assembled goddesses addressed "To the Fairest." Three goddesses laid claim to the apple--Aphrodite, Hera and Athena. Zeus was asked to mediate and he commanded Hermes to lead the three goddesses to Paris of Troy to decide the issue. The three goddesses appearing before the shepherd prince, each offering him gifts for favour. He chose Aphrodite, swayed by her promise to bestow upon him Helene, the most beautiful woman, for wife. The subsequent abduction of Helene led directly to the Trojan War and the fall of the city. More on The judgment of Paris

Konstantin Makovsky  (1839–1915)

The Birth of Venus, c. before 1915

Oil on canvas

Private collection

The Birth of Venus. In Roman mythology, Venus was the goddess of love, sex, beauty, and fertility. She was the Roman counterpart to the Greek Aphrodite. However, Roman Venus had many abilities beyond the Greek Aphrodite; she was a goddess of victory, fertility, and even prostitution. According to Hesiod's Theogony, Aphrodite was born of the foam from the sea after Saturn (Greek Cronus) castrated his father Uranus (Ouranus) and his blood fell to the sea. This latter explanation appears to be more a popular theory due to the countless artworks depicting Venus rising from the sea in a clam. More The Birth of Venus

Makovsky was one of the most highly appreciated and highly paid Russian artists of the time. Many democratic critics considered him as a renegade of the Wanderers' ideals, producing striking but shallow works, while others see him as a forerunner of Russian Impressionism.

Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky

RUSSIAN BEAUTY

Oil on canvas

Private collection

Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky

BEAUTY PREPARING TO BATHE

Oil on panel

Private collection

Konstantin Makovsky  (1839–1915)

Nude in Black Stockings, c. 1890s

Oil on canvas

Height: 106 cm (41.7 in); Width: 46 cm (18.1 in)

Private collection

Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky

Seated Nude

Pastel on canvas laid down on board

89 x 51 cm.

Private collection

Makovsky was killed in 1915 when his horse-drawn carriage was hit by an electric tram in Saint Petersburg. More on Konstantin Yegorovich Makovsky

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